NRR , do you know what the septic tank to structure distance minimum is? Is it the same for the drainfield?

Just getting started here and am trying to ball park building location. I can do end of driveway like you have but I'm stuck with septic and property line dictating my size. I could also go directly across from my existing side load garage. There is currently a gigantic pear tree in the way which the HOA may not like me removing but a few more windstorms and it wont be a problem. The neighbors already lost theirs. There are pros and cons to both. I want to keep the cost reasonable by finishing the outside and slowly completing the inside. Let me know if you want any help with the wiring. Would be good to chat in person. Whats the difference between an MSEE and an electrician? An electrician gets paid more.

I don't know what the min septic and drain field distances are. I just sketched it up and gave it to the environmental health dept and they approved it. They did re-draw my repair field because I built the shed on top of it. Call your local environmental health dept and they can probably tell you.

forgot about this thread. had an outage at work, the holidays, etc., so i waited on the electrical stuff. doing a 100 amp service out of my house panel to a sub panel in the shop. me and an electrician from work ran the wire inside the shop last saturday and then i dug the trench for the service on sunday. ended up renting an electric rotary hammer w/ rotary stop to bust out a couple notches in the foundation where my conduit will come up. i got some scrap THWN for cheap, so i'm putting PVC conduit in the ground instead of direct burial cable. gonna run the conduit saturday and hopefully pull wire the next weekend.

conduit has to be buried 18" deep to the top of the conduit. i only had about 15' to go, which was just short enough to not really need a trencher. digging about 20" deep x 15' long by hand fucking blows.

yeah i buried pipe and conduit in mine. I'll do electricity for sure. Not sure if I'll ever do water. If anything, it'll just be a line in for a deep sink if I ever dig a well for a sprinkler system. I'd just drain it to dump outside.

got my conduit run today. had to cut my drywall below the house panel so we could get a hole cut. got 1.5" PVC that comes through the block into a storage room in the attached garage, then runs along the block inside, through another block wall into the crawlspace. then there's about 6' of 1.5" flex that goes through the subfloor and bottom plate and into the bottom of the panel. it was kind of a pain in the ass. gained a lot of respect for residential electricians.

Yeah, sorry, my iPhone started applying that stupid filter setting after I installed the latest version of iOS, and I haven't figured out how to remove that default. I can change/remove the effect after the fact, but I forgot to on these.

As far as the concrete goes, it's 3000 psi/fiber reinforced, and that thin section is about a foot deep, as opposed to 4" everywhere else. It might break, but I tried to mitigate that risk with the depth. Still, if it cracks, it cracks. Won't be the end of the world. My driveway itself cracked from the big dump trailer we used to unload the skid steer.

As far as the construction goes, I think it's pretty stout and well-built, especially considering that none of the 3 of us are professional framers. Hell in some ways it might be better than what a framing crew would do, because we are taking out time, rather slapping shit together and moving on to the next job. Getting everything straight, cutting all the joints to fit well, etc. The only thing I'm concerned about is on the roof trusses where the long diagonal 2x4 is just resting on the top corner of the 2x6 beam, held together by a mending plate front & back. The truss itself is attached to the walls with hurricane/seismic ties on each 2x6 beam, but it seems to me that where the roof 2x4 attaches to the horizontal beam would be the weak point. I have some steel straps I'm going to reinforce that with...just need to figure out how I want to do it. Might also gusset those joints with leftover OSB.

dimensions are 16x24. Walls are 10' high; roof pitch is 6/12 (so 5' of rise). I hope it doesn't look funny aesthetically due to being too big/too tall for the lot and surrounding houses. I think it'll be OK...I just hope people are like "DUDE, your shop is fucking awesome!" Not "Ahhh, YOU'RE the fucking asshole over on _____ Court with the giant building that's way too big!"

I don't really have much in the way of health insurance until I start my new job on Monday, either...so I've been trying to minimize my time climbing around up top so far.

I would say my help is "pseudo-professional." He retired from the Navy, as a nuclear command and control dude (TACAMO). He's started an inflatables rental business and a site prep (hence the skid steer/trailer/F-450s) business since he got out, and has also gotten into doing a lot of door/window installs for local builders (probably does that more than his actual site prep business). He and his son do the site prep and windows/doors installs, and they built a similar (but smaller) shop at their house a couple of years ago.

but yeah i'm much happier with the mitre saw, hammer, nail gun, drill, and screws than I am with the shovel and screed board, or crawling around on a slanted surface 16' above concrete.

passed electrical rough-in today. rented a panel lift. gonna try to put my ceiling up tomorrow (OSB). then i just have to put in the switches, outlets, and light fixtures and i should be ready for electrical final and building final. i'll do the insulation and wall sheeting after final inspection.

finished putting up the ceiling. hung the lights inside. got my outside lights in too. all i've got left is hooking up the ground wire to the ground rod. i pulled a ground wire along with my service from the house panel because the NEC book says you don't need a ground electrode on accessory structures if you do that. the dumbass inspector down here says i need that wire as well as a ground rod. anyway, i should be able to knock that out tomorrow and then i'll call for electrical final and building final this week. gonna go ahead and insulate the walls and sheet the walls with OSB after inspection. also going to put in a 220 volt 50A outlet for a welder

had to go to 3 different home depots to get those six 8' fixtures. no store around me had more than 2 in stock.

[Edited on March 14, 2015 at 9:44 PM. Reason : really happy with how this shop came together]

picked up some R13 and R19 (my front wall is 2x6) today and got started. just fyi, if you intend to hang insulation, get a staple hammer. i started out with the regular lever-style staple gun and my hand was cramping up in no time. my loving wife stopped on her way home and grabbed me a staple hammer and i was able to move a lot faster, then i ran out of staples .

[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 10:00 PM. Reason : nice to have lights so i can get work done after work now]